Witches, graves otherworldly sites around Boston

Updated 2:24 pm, Wednesday, October 30, 2013

In Cambridge, a costumed guide (shot with a time exposure) describes ghastly murders on Harvard's campus and in surrounding Cambridge.

In Cambridge, a costumed guide (shot with a time exposure) describes ghastly murders on Harvard's campus and in surrounding Cambridge.

Photo: Photos By Jennifer R. Lloyd / San Antonio Express-News

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In Cambridge, haunt the nation's oldest university grounds by joining the Harvard Square Ghost Tour.

In Cambridge, haunt the nation's oldest university grounds by joining the Harvard Square Ghost Tour.

Photo: Jennifer R. Lloyd, San Antonio Express-News

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In nearby Salem, a graveyard with carved head-stones, some hundreds of years old, intrigues.

In nearby Salem, a graveyard with carved head-stones, some hundreds of years old, intrigues.

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A graveyard with crooked and carved headstones, many of which date to the 1700s and 1800s, entice visitors in Salem, Mass.

A graveyard with crooked and carved headstones, many of which date to the 1700s and 1800s, entice visitors in Salem, Mass.

Photo: Jennifer R. Lloyd, San Antonio Express-News

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The Salem Witch Museum takes visitors back to 1692, when hysteria ran rampant.

The Salem Witch Museum takes visitors back to 1692, when hysteria ran rampant.

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Cannoli in more than a dozen flavors soothe the soul at Mike's Pastry in Boston, 300 Hanover St.

Cannoli in more than a dozen flavors soothe the soul at Mike's Pastry in Boston, 300 Hanover St.

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Travelers prepare for sundown with a view of Boston's Longfellow Bridge.

Travelers prepare for sundown with a view of Boston's Longfellow Bridge.

Photo: Jennifer R. Lloyd, San Antonio Express-News

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Inside the Museum of Science, pictured here, visitors can explore creepy celestial bodies covered in ice or flowing with lava during a 40-minute planetarium showing of “Moons: Worlds of Mystery”, $10 for adults. less

Inside the Museum of Science, pictured here, visitors can explore creepy celestial bodies covered in ice or flowing with lava during a 40-minute planetarium showing of “Moons: Worlds of Mystery”, $10 for ... more

Photo: Jennifer R. Lloyd, San Antonio Express-News

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Fill up at the Gulu-Gulu Café in Salem, Mass., which is tucked into the square around Lappin Park.

Fill up at the Gulu-Gulu Café in Salem, Mass., which is tucked into the square around Lappin Park.

Photo: Jennifer R. Lloyd, San Antonio Express-News

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Witches, graves otherworldly sites around Boston

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People have long traversed New England sites for a taste of a bygone era — from the landing of the Pilgrims to the American Revolution.

But in October around Boston, the aging graves of legendary figures and tales of supposed witches take on a more eerie quality just right for the Halloween season.

Reminders of the American Colonial era are easily spotted and reference many a grisly act. Along the 2.5-mile Freedom Trail, which begins at the Boston Common, you'll see the elegant Georgian architecture of the Old State House. The structure overlooks the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre, where tensions flared and British soldiers shot and killed five colonists, according to the city's website.

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In addition to jellyfish, the aquarium houses penguins, seals, sea lions and a plethora of fish species, some housed in a multistory ocean tank — the aquarium's centerpiece with 130 species — into which scuba divers submerge to feed the creatures. Before leaving, face your fears by stroking the back of a cownose ray in the Shark and Ray Touch Tank.

Then head to the Museum of Science to explore celestial bodies covered in ice or flowing with lava during a 40-minute showing of “Moons: Worlds of Mystery” at its planetarium, $10 for adults.

For dinner, settle on one of the North End's classic Italian eateries, such as Massimino's Cucina Italiana, which serves piles of crisp calamari as a violinist and accordionist, moving from table to table, make the mood festive.

Save room for dessert at Mike's Pastry, 300 Hanover St. It will be easy to spot by the long line of customers waiting for cream-filled cannoli. Choose from more than a dozen flavors.

Beyond Boston

If you're feeling more like a sip with your scare, take public transportation to the suburb of Somerville. A classy underground establishment in Davis Square called Saloon is a bourbon connoisseur's paradise, where an Old Fashioned or Manhattan is standard accompaniment for everything from grass-fed beef sliders to wild mushroom risotto.

Then scoot over to Cambridge, the nation's oldest university grounds, and join the Harvard Square Ghost Tour, $15 for adults. A guide in costume provides tales — some that sound more like myth than truth — about ghastly murders on Harvard University's campus and in surrounding Cambridge.

Outside Dunster House, a dormitory, visitors hear about a 1995 slaying. Sinedu Tadesse, a 20-year-old pre-med student from Ethiopia, stabbed her roommate to death and injured another woman before hanging herself in the bathroom, according to news reports.

Salem

For about $10, visitors can hop a commuter rail for a half-hour ride north to the infamous seaside town of Salem.

The city has prepared for the arrival of supernatural-seeking tourists by painting a red stripe on the brick sidewalks that lead to historic locations.

Cheesy witch-themed sites abound, but a must-visit is the Salem Witch Museum at Washington Square.

A $9.50 adult ticket buys spectators a seat in a darkened room lined with scenes that light up as a narrator, in a fashion reminiscent of an old-fashioned horror film, tells of the 1692 witch hysteria that led to 19 hangings and the death of one man, who was pressed underneath stones.

A second exhibit connects the mentality of fear that led to the witch hysteria with more recent occurrences, including the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and, later, McCarthyism.

A short walk away is the parklike Salem Witch Trials Memorial, which remembers the wrongly accused and executed. Stone benches that circle the memorial overlook a graveyard with crooked and carved headstones, many of which date to the 1700s and 1800s.

Visiting those sites might lead one to seek the sweet life with a stop by Ye Olde Pepper Companie, a confectioner that's been in business since 1806 and claims to be America's oldest candy company.

Though the shelves of the candy shop are now lined with chocolates and lollipops, the store still sells versions of early treats: lemon- and peppermint-flavored hard candies called Gibralters and stick candies made from blackstrap molasses called Black Jacks.

Skip the gimmicky tourist shops and instead grab a Ouija board for the kids (or yourself) from Mud Puddle Toys along Essex Street. Enjoy the near-crushing experience by sneaking into the overwhelming aisles of the claustrophobia-inducing Derby Square Book Store for a cheap read.

Before heading back to Boston, fill up at the Gulu-Gulu Café, which is tucked into the square around Lappin Park. As you sip a dark goblet of draft Stone Imperial Russian Stout for $5.50, listen to live music, offered Thursdays through Saturdays.

A few steps from the café sits a cheery sculpture of the Samantha Stephens character from “Bewitched” framed by a crescent moon, proof that haunting the Northeast doesn't have to be entirely serious.